Kuwait oil union says it will continue strike: spokesman

Thomson ReutersKuwait Oil and Petrochemical Industries Union workers sit with their cellphones on the first day of an official strike over public sector pay reforms, in Ahmadi

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Thousands of striking Kuwaiti oil and gas workers will carry on with their three-day-old strike until planned public sector pay cuts are cancelled, their spokesman said on Tuesday.

But in a television interview after the announcement, Kuwait’s oil minister ruled out negotiations with the employees until they stopped their action, signalling that a dispute which has nearly halved the OPEC member’s crude production is deepening.

“The strike is ongoing until the implementation of the demands of the workers,” Farhan al-Ajmi, head of the Petrochemicals Industries Company workers union, told a news conference.

“A decision to cancel is linked to the abolition of decisions issued by the Petroleum Corporation,” he said.

Workers fear reduced salaries, benefits and staff layoffs will be part of a planned government overhaul of the payroll system in the public sector.

In an interview with Kuwaiti TV channel al-Rai, Kuwait’s acting oil minister Anas al-Saleh said production would continue and that no talks would proceed during a strike.

“We cannot sit down at the negotiating table with the unions during a strike. We will achieve the impossible to continue to operate the oil sector despite the strike,” Saleh said.

(Reporting by Ahmed Hegagy, Writing by Noah Browning, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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